Lessons to Learn
by GrizzlyBiscuit
Summary: Some lessons can only be learned by doing. Uzumaki Naruto has lived this lesson and put it to use for a long time, but even he has a few new things to learn when he's called to Kamikura Island to teach a new species how to live, how to survive, and most of all how to love


He'd received the call a few weeks ago, a call from a person he never expected to talk to again. Stepping off a boat filled with supplies for an expedition, he checked the bokken slung through the top flap of his backpack once before slinging it over his arm.

Hiroto Minaka, the mad genius of Tokyo U. Word had gotten back to him already about a find that was going to change the face of the world, all by this one man.

He snorted at the thought.

Minaka had been a Mangaka writer in college, barely making ends meet. The cape he wore around campus he had claimed was a sign of his greatness, and how he would rise above the mundane people at the school to show them his brilliance. He had been introduced to Sahashi Takami, the sane associate, although she associated with Minaka, which proved to him that she was slightly crazy.

Instead of Takami calling him, it was Minaka who reached out to him, and the request was a strange one considering when they had met at the time being, he had been a history teacher at Tokyo University.

As he followed the directions given to him by the staff on the island already, he found himself standing before technology that was beyond anything humanity should have been up to. The doorway leading inside had people coming and going in an excited frenzy, none more excited that the one person standing outside and directing the chaos, his cape flapping in the breeze.

"Oi, Hiroto-san." He called to them as the wind ruffled his spiky blonde locks, he waved to get the scientists attention as Minaka and Takami turned to look at him.

Minaka's smile nearly split his face as he frantically crossed the space between himself and the scientist slash dictator. "You came! When we didn't hear back from you, I had becomed concerned that you had already moved on to your next job!" Minaka patted him on the shoulder before taking his backpack from him and began rifling through it, tossing the contents over his shoulder save the bokken. "Please tell me you brought more weapons than this stick?" Minaka complained as he turned the backpack over, dumping the rest into the ground.

He thumped the spastic man in the head with his fist. "Those were my clean clothes, you idiot."

Takami walked over, cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth, as she observed the two of them. "Been a while, Teach." She nodded to him as Hiroto sifted through the clothes before sighing in a depressed manner. "You age good for an old man."

He smiled at the woman who held a small suspicion in her eyes. "I try not to let the stress of the world get to me. Gives you ulcers…" He patted his stomach for good measure.

Minaka moaned loudly before exploding to his feet, his hair gripped in his hands. "This is no good!" He lamented loudly as he looked to the sky. "What kind of teacher doesn't bring a weapon with him out in the wild!?"

He watched Minaka continue to rant on about the injustice of modern weaponry, leaning toward Takami as he stage whispered to her. "You did cut him off from all caffeine products, right?"

"As much as I physically can." Takami sighed as she glared mildly at the frantic man.

"Oi, Minaka." He called out to the scientist, causing the man to stop his mad dance of insanity. "Why am I out here on this island, and what is that behind me?" He thumbed back to the half buried object that looked vaguely alien.

Hiroto Minaka savagely smiled as a maniacal look glowed in his eyes. "Do you really want to know?"

* * *

"These are the ones to be your new students!" Minaka announced grandly as he gestured to five confused people.

The first was a lavender haired woman who studied him. She had her body turned slightly from him, and her hands up in front of her as she peered at him with untrusting eyes. The second was a raven haired woman with long black hair, her eyes cast in a sleepy stare. She pulled at her clothing unconsciously as if not comfortable wearing the medical gown like the others.

The redhead woman was looking at him closely, at times invading his personal space as she looked at everything about him. Her hands at one point reached for his pants, but a light rap to her knuckles stopped her from unpantsing him. The only man from the group held himself with confidence, but much like the lavender haired woman, his body was angled slightly from him, leaving as little of his body exposed to harm as possible.

The last woman scoffed once at him and promptly began to ignore him completely. Dirty silver hair that was as long as the other women, she bled a feeling of hostility as she stood slightly apart from the people around her.

After getting a cursory feel of them, he looked back at Minaka. "I get the feeling that history is not what you want me to teach them."

Minaka grinned as he patted his back. "In actuality, I was hoping you could teach them some of your kenjutsu. Well, I was hoping you could teach them something other than Bokken, but beggars can't be choosers."

He eyed the five people once more, the silver-haired woman was peering at him from the corner of her eye now, eying his weapon. The Redheaded woman had now turned away from him as if afraid of what he'd do to him while the raven haired woman merely yawned, her whole attitude screaming unconcerned.

The other two however had turned slightly toward him, the man now gazing at him in a different light as he eyed his body. The woman with the lavender hair had now turned fully toward him and was staring at him in a challenging fashion, a frown on her face and a glare in her eye.

"Well… I make no promises…" He said non-committally as he stepped toward them a little. Bowing to them, he smiled to all of them as he greeted them. "From today onward, I will be your teacher. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Let's take care of each other, okay?"

* * *

"Karasuba, Mutsu, step forward." Naruto announced as he stood in a large squared off area. They had vacated the space given to them to move their training outside after their first training session when Kazehana had summoned up a wind that had nearly sucked the oxygen out of the immediate area. Since the area had been enclosed, it had been bad for everyone, including herself.

He had ignored Takami when she had tried to tell him it was an environmental system gone haywire, staring at Kazehana, who shook in small tremors as she had wrapped her arms around herself, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Raising his bokken in front of him, he watched as Mutsu and Karasuba each started off in ready positions. He glanced back and forth between each of them before smiling to him, his eyes squinting. "Come at me with the intent to kill, or I'll hurt you." Naruto told them, watching as Mutsu balked, his stance breaking as he assessed what he had been instructed.

Karasuba's eyes narrowed at him as she tensed, preparing herself for the human in front of her. After having been 'raised' by the scientists and tested by them, she had begun to dislike them looking at her in their superiority. She listened to them when they talked when they thought she couldn't hear them, of the things they could do, the abilities they had, and how humans could not do what they could. This Naruto would be the same, another boastful human who would show them what little skill he had before being crushed under her blade.

She stepped forward to begin her assault and end this farce when the blonde disappeared. Her eyes widened in shock as her senses screamed at her to move away before she heard Mutsu beside her grunt in pain. She looked to her left, over her shoulder as she tried to force her body to twist in that direction. Naruto stood before Mutsu, the pommel of the Bokken driven into the forehead of her fellow Sekirei, forcing his head back even as Naruto adjusted his attack and slashed down across Mutsu's chest, disarming him and taking him out.

Bringing her sword up from her right hip across her body, she slashed at Naruto's side. She watched as he impossibly twisted over his right side, above the blade by a scant few inches as his foot caught her in the face. She held the Bokken barely as Naruto landed beside her, his sword point jammed into her Carotid Artery in her throat, his eyes opened wide, the blue orbs flat and unmerciful as he continued to smile.

"Congratulations, you are both dead." Naruto announced to them as he pulled his weapon back from Karasuba's neck. His eyes returning to normal, he turned from Karasuba to look at the other three students he had.

Miya stared openly at him, her face unreadable, but her body held in rigid prose as if expecting a follow up slash from the blonde man. Kazehana looked mildly surprised, though a smirk was on her face that she tried hiding behind her sleeve. Matsu looked dumbfounded, then green around the gills as she realized she would have to learn to fight like that, or possibly similarly.

"What you just saw was two people being defeated by themselves." Naruto announced as he ignored Mutsu's grunt of pain. "Had they treated me like I was someone dangerous, they would have probably lasted 5 minutes a piece, assuming they were to aid each other."

Karasuba stared at Naruto's back in disbelief. This human had just waltzed around her as if she was like these pathetic humans and in three moves defeated her and Mutsu. She had never felt a sure certainty that she was about to die as she had in the moment his sword came to rest on her throat, Naruto's flat gaze looking through her as if he had finished his move.

Her hand tightened on her Bokken as she grit her teeth in hatred, hauling back with her weapon, she wrenched forward to Naruto's exposed kidneys. She could only watch as her blade passed through the space he had stood in just moments ago, her eyes looking up immediately as she expected to see him flipping over the swipe once more. The foot that jammed into her jaw from below lifted her off her feet as her brain jostled in her head.

Even as she arched backwards, she tried to right herself in her unresponsive body. She saw the blade incoming from her side and could do nothing as it took her in the stomach, wrapping her around it as it slammed her into the unforgiving ground. She gagged from the force, spit flying from her throat as her body screamed in pain from the force of the impact and the sword strike. Her eyes swam as a kick hit her in the temple and rolled her violently across the ground, she could taste blood in her mouth as she bit her tongue.

She turned her head slowly, peering up through her silver hair at the blonde that stood above her, Bokken in hand. His cold blue eyes glaring down at her as if something unsightly was before him, and it drew up her anger from deep inside her soul. She wanted to reach up and crush the light from those eyes with her own power, to split open the head of her enemy even as her head swam.

"Should I continue?" Naruto asked her unemotionally, spinning his Bokken slowly in his hand before pointing it down at her. He raised the weapon slowly up in front of himself as he aimed. "You have a good look, 'nee-chan. I want to see more of it."

He spun on his heel and deflected the thrust that nearly took him in his spine, countered, parried the reversal, then locked the Bokken with his own before grabbing the joined blades. Miya continued to stare at him, now in his face, with an unreadable look as she didn't move. "She's beaten." Miya spoke for the first time in his presence, her voice melodic if not harsh.

"There's only two times when an opponent is defeated." Naruto answered before releasing his blade from Miya's, then letting go of the Sekirei's blade. "When your opponent admits defeat, or when they're dead."

Miya kneeled down to help Karasuba up as Naruto continued from where he left off. "Mankind is not going to allow you to surrender. You are everything they are scared of, made in Man's image, but falling outside the natural order of things. As such, they will hunt you and everyone here down and kill everything, including your brother and sisters." He turned and locked one eye on Miya and Karasuba as he continued. "I'm to make sure that you can not only defend yourself, but defend everyone you will ever come to care for. If you don't like me now, you definitely won't like me come tomorrow."

* * *

"Alright, Miya." Naruto held his Bokken in his off hand as he stared at Miya, who stood opposite of him, her new black clothes mimicking the Shinsengumi. "You wanted me to come out here for a reason, you've brought your weapon with you, what do you want?"

Miya stared at him in that unnerving, uncaring glare, quietly peering at him from across the distance between them. Naruto stood there and quietly waited, having nothing but time .

"You aren't like the other humans here." Miya spoke firmly, yet not in an accusation. More as if she knew no other way to talk to someone. "They say you used to be an academic teacher, a person who taught your world's history, yet you fight as if you were born to weapon combat. The adjusters are scared of you, Hiroto Minaka is in obvious joy of you, Sahashi Takami is studying you."

"Studying me, huh?" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with the hand not holding his Bokken. "Yeah, I guess my standing toe to toe with you and even giving you grievous harm does frighten them. No human should be able to outpace all of you, not all at once."

Miya pursed her lips as she frowned. "What are you then, if not human?"

Naruto smirked at Miya. "Did I say I was anything but human?" Miya tilted her head but didn't answer. "This isn't about how badly I hurt Karasuba, is it? I hope you're not questioning my teaching methods."

"It is about Karasuba, but not about her training." Miya spoke with her blank gaze as she continued. "You humiliated her."

"I hope I did more than that." Naruto smirked as Miya frowned at him again.

"Karasuba is not like the rest of us." Miya peered past him to the camp outside of the ship. "The adjusters have made her more… Bloodthirsty…"

Naruto frowned at that bit of information.

Returning her gaze back to Naruto, she continued. "She will not allow this slight to go unpunished. She will try to get back at you."

"I'm hoping for it." Naruto smiled at Miya. "The whole purpose of you learning to defend yourself is to learn how to strike at your enemies. When she comes at me, any time she comes at me, she's going to be very focused on how I deal with it."

Miya frowned at him. "She's going to kill you."

Naruto's smirk grew. "She'll try." He watched as confusion graced Miya's face. "A person learns through pain." Naruto explained as he drew his Bokken. "Every emotion a person has teaches them something different. Karasuba learns through anger, a bad medium but acceptable for now. She will learn best how to kill by trying to kill me."

Miya shook her head at him. "You're suicidal."

"I like to think I tempt fate." Naruto replied as he turned around and headed down the hill, ending their conversation.

* * *

"Matsu." The redheaded girl cringed, ducking her head reflexively as she looked over her shoulder in confirmation before spinning around in place, hiding something behind her back. "Wanna explain to me what you're doing in my bedroom?"

Matsu weakly smiled, her mind running a mile a minute. "Ah- aha ha... ha ha... I was... um" she dropped something suspiciously orange and kicked it under his cot with her foot. "I was... looking for you, actually..." Her wine colored eyes looking up at him, trying to get a read on if her lie was working.

"Well, you found me..." Naruto hung his black coat up on the inside of the doorway as he spoke. "Mind telling me what you're doing with my manuscript?"

She winced, a noise made in her throat that sounded like she had swallowed something the wrong way. "I was... um..." What could she say that wouldn't get her into more trouble than she was already in. "I was... asked to... find you?"

Naruto turned around and leaned against his door, smirking at the redheaded woman. Matsu got the feeling that he didn't believe her lie in the slightest. Shivering at the gaze of his sky blue eyes peering through her, she sighed before speaking her peace. "Why do you continue to treat us like the others?" When all Naruto did was arch an eyebrow, Matsu continued. "You talk to us like we're old friends, placing yourself abnormally close to us as if our very beings didn't bother you in the slightest, while the scientists keep us at arm's length. You correct us and explain what we're doing wrong where everyone else simply points it out to us and expects us to understand what they're telling us." Matsu crossed her arms under her bosom as she leaned forward a little, a frown on her face. "I don't understand why you aren't like the others who study us."

Naruto tilted his head to the side while he thought about Matsu's question. Coming to an answer, he walked over to Matsu who automatically cringed away from Naruto as he reached up and rubbed her head gently. "No one should have the right to treat you as a thing. You are a person to me, and I'll never treat you as anything other than a person."

Matsu stared up at his face, her cheeks tinged pink as she stared at the smiling blonde, a warm feeling in her chest lighting up for the very first time as she gazed at the honesty in his face.

* * *

"Alright, today we'll be working on your skills." Naruto announced, breaking up their warm up practice he insisted all of them to go through. Seeing all of them looking at him warily, Naruto pulled out a folder. "I procured this from Minaka, it states that all of you have beyond human skill sets you've held back on. That stops today." He flipped the folder in front of him before cutting at it with his bokken. All of them watched in shock as the folder bisected, then shredded into finer pieces as Naruto continued to cut at it with his blunt weapon until nothing but confetti was left.

Naruto tossed his bokken to Matsu, who fumbled with the weapon, releasing a squawk of surprised and shock as she tried to gain control of what she thought was a lethal weapon. She dropped it to the ground, looking sheepishly around as Naruto approached Mutsu and stared him in the face. "Mutsu, Sekirei 05, seen triggering earth based attacks when impacting the ground with a rod. Let's see how much control you have of this power."

Miya stepped forward between them. "This is crazy." She barked at them, trying to divert their attention from each other. "Naruto is a human, Mutsu. you'll kill him."

Naruto frowned as he glanced at Miya before looking Mutsu in the face, his eyes narrowing. "Do you think that is the case, Mutsu?" Naruto asked, his voice low and challenging. "Even after the training I've given you, do you think I'm just a normal human?"

Mutsu locked eyes with Naruto, his senses picking up into hyper aware perception as he focused on the blonde. There was the challenge he could see in the man's eyes, no doubt about that. There was also a look that was telling Mutsu that pushing himself to better himself was his duty, and Naruto would never respect him if he didn't.

"Miya-san." Mutsu spoke, his hand taking a hold of the hilt of the bokken. "I am going to fight Naruto-sensei with all I have. Please do not interfere."

Miya grimaced at Mutsu's declaration but stepped back as the others made room for what was surely going to be a very loud fight. If the fool blonde wanted to fight a Sekirei at full strength, then let his own death be on his head.

Naruto jumped back from Mutsu, hands out to either side of him and slightly crouched as he watched Mutsu draw his weapon, his face cold and focused as he glared at Naruto. Naruto kicked a couple of stones up in front of him, snatching them from out in front of him before tossing one at Mutsu. The man batted the stone away then jumped left as a kick ripped through the spot where he had stood just moments before. Blue eyes kept him in sight as Mutsu jumped again avoiding a follow-up sweep kick that would have forced him to reset his footing had he stayed too close.

Landing from his impromptu evasion, Mutsu stepped forward in a basic Kendo strike, aiming for the blonde's hands as the man lunged at him. Naruto pulled back his hands but did not slow his forward progress as he moved inside Mutsu's sword reach, forcing the weapon user to move again.

"I didn't teach you to do nothing but dodge, Mutsu." Naruto taunted as he bolted left then right, creating a brief after image as he shifted directions at full speed. "Attack soon or I will end this now."

Mutsu frowned as he batted Naruto's lunge to the side, attempting to follow-up with a side cut, but was unable to add a second strike. As Naruto righted himself and lunged at Mutsu once again, Mutsu kneeled down and placed the tip of his sword to the ground.

"**Kasaiten**." Mutsu muttered ominously, and the effects were immediate as they were lethal.

The ground fractured as if struck by a falling asteroid as rocks and terrain thrust upwards violently. All of the Sekirei leapt back to abandon their spots as Mutsu's attack spread outwards from him. Rocks came to a standstill moments later, tilted at jagged angles as the earth clawed at the sky and crumbled back to the ground in places. Shaking off the bout of fatigue from using his power, he stood up weakly and looked around at the rocks.

"Not bad." Naruto's voice echoed to everyone from somewhere in the rocks. "Need to work on your control and focus, but at least you can tap into your potential. That's better than most people start with." The air became thick with a strange feeling before the rocks exploded away from the field in every direction, ripping down to fine particles of grit in a moments notice that forced everyone to cover their faces. When the wind died down, Naruto was standing ten feet away from Mutsu, a hand fan held in his grip. Snapping the fan closed, he slid it into his pocket before dusting himself down. "We'll consider this a tie for the time being." He announced calmly as he looked around at everyone as he ignored their stares.

"Kazehana, I'll work with you next. The rest of you are dismissed for the day."

* * *

Naruto glared into Matsu's face as the redheaded woman cringed away from him, not looking at him. It was three weeks into their training, and he was just getting Matsu comfortable with learning a little hand to hand combat when Matsu arrived to training wearing a pair of glasses. He'd been told by Takami that none of the Sekirei, when born, had any imperfections in them, they were as close to human perfection as could physically be called that.

The fact that Matsu was wearing a pair of glasses on her face now instead of the entire time upset him.

"Matsu." Naruto's voice was calm, but tempered, as if he was measuring his words. "Why are you wearing glasses?"

Matsu didn't say anything as she continued to not make eye contact with Naruto, shaking slightly in fear.

"Ara? Why the sudden consideration?" Kazehana asked as she looked at him from behind him, her long black sleeves blowing in the wind. "You've been pretty mean to all of us since you started training us, what's the difference if one of us has a condition?"

Naruto stood up, radiating hostility. "Everyone has the day off." Naruto turned from them as he headed toward the ship, and the scientists who were working as adjusters.

Mutsu sighed as he brushed his hand through his sandy colored hair. "Well, at least we don't have to go through his torture today." He watched as Naruto disappeared into the camp. "I don't envy being Takehito when Naruto finds him."

Miya glanced toward Mutsu, her glare making Mutsu mutter about how troublesome women were before he wandered off.

"Miya-tan." Matsu spoke quietly, drawing the lavender woman's attention. "Is Takehito-tan going to be alright?"

Karasuba smirked as she ran down toward the camp. She wanted to watch what he did to one of those bastards who touched them, altered them against their wills. She may not be allowed to hurt them, but she was going to enjoy one of them being hurt by another human.

"Well, let's at least try to save Takehito." Kazehana smiled to herself as she trailed after Karasuba, using her wind powers to lift her up into the air and toward the ship. "Maybe he'll show me what this love is that he speaks of?"

They eventually caught up to Naruto as he confronted Asama Takehito, a one-sided shouting match occurring between them. Naruto had lost his Bokken at some point, and his hands flexed as if he wished he was still holding it.

"Why was it necessary to hurt Matsu's eyes?" Naruto growled at Takehito, his voice sounding like a wild animal was coming from his throat. "Her abilities had nothing to do with her eyes, so why?"

Takehito sighed sadly as he took his glasses off his face, pocketing them. "The adjuster working on her made a miscalculation when attempting to suppress her powers to normal levels. The miscalculation affected her sight after the treatment occurred, and there was no way to reverse it."

Naruto's whiskers started to flare up as he flexed his fingers, his nails slowly growing into claws. "You're playing God with them, all of you. Who gave you the right to 'suppress' anything about them?"

Takehito looked at Naruto, imploringly. "We're trying to help them be normal people who can live in society without standing out. Our technology isn't like theirs, there are going to be mistakes."

"Mistakes?!" Naruto shouted as a pressure dropped over the area. Takehito buckled under the pressure as he was forced to his knees. Karasuba and Miya were able to ignore the pressure, having felt Naruto's K.I. before. Kazehana stayed back on the fringes while Matsu hid behind the door frame. Mutsu's hand reflexively gripped the hilt of his Bokken as the pressure slowly increased. "Their lives now are in your hands and the most you can say is that there are mistakes?!"

Takehito was finding it hard to breathe as Naruto started to step toward him. The closer Naruto got, the greater the pressure increased until Naruto stood over him. He felt like he was getting pushed through the planet by whatever it was that Naruto was doing to him.

Naruto reached for the back of Takehito's shirt when his hand iced over. The K.I. in the air disappeared into nothing as Naruto stared at the ice before he looked behind the privacy barrier at a little girl with grey eyes and short, light brown hair, a hand held up toward him. Naruto's heart seized up at the look on the child's face as he glanced from a gasping Takehito to the little child no more than five.

"Haku…" Naruto uttered around a breath that wouldn't escape from his throat.

"You will not hurt him." The little girl glared at Naruto as ice crawled up his arm to his shoulder. She wobbled on her feet as her powers started to strain her body.

In an instant, Naruto was gone, floating leaves falling to the floor where he had been.

* * *

"Matsu, I need to borrow you for a few moments." Naruto called to the glasses clad woman. Looking up from an instruction manual for deconstructing a computer, she frowned at Naruto before closing her book and walking over to him with it in hand.

"I'm going to get an idea on your powers, but to do that, I want some first hand observations." Naruto explained as he walked with Matsu over to a table in the corner with some papers, a pencil, and a stub of an eraser sitting by itself. "Do a good enough job, and I'll see about getting you a gift."

Matsu sighed, having gone through this before with the other people. There were some days when Naruto would just sit with them and treat them like people, with nothing to expect from him except to deal with his randomness. She had speculated once with Miya that he had a form of OCD, to which Miya made a derisive noise and commented about him being a typical male, earning both a giggle from Kazehana and a growl from Karasuba. Mutsu usually sat in his corner of the room taking care of his Bokken and didn't join in until someone started pointing out he was trying to overcompensate, though they didn't understand what the reference meant.

Sitting down on one side of the table, she took the first sheet without prompting and began to fill in the standard answers on the first, those being Name, Date, Timeframe of Test. She then placed her pencil in front of her and waited for Naruto sat down and instructed her on what was required this time.

She watched as Naruto sat down, took her tests, and marked F on all of them before handing them back to her with a disappointed look on his face.

Matsu stared at the failing grade on all the sheets before a vein popped out on her forehead. "Are you mocking me, Sensei? Why did you fail me before I even started?!"

Naruto looked nonplussed at her outrage and waited for her to take a breath. "You want to start over?" When she nodded emphatically, Naruto took the old tests of the table and put new tests in front of her.

Again, Matsu filled out the basic information, but didn't stop at just that as she filled out all the answers this time without waiting for him to tell her to go. After nearly 20 minutes, she handed her work over to Naruto with a smug look on her face. Naruto collected the sheets, then marked F on each one without looking at it, and placed them down in front of them.

"Are you ready to listen, or would you like to try this from the beginning one more time?" Naruto asked as it looked like Matsu was nearly ready to blow her top.

Standing up abruptly, she took her instructional book with her and stomped off without a second look at Naruto, who watched her leave.

It was near lights out before she returned to her room for the night. As she approached her door, she noticed that the test papers she had been handed by Naruto were taped to the door. Above the sheets of paper was yellow highlighter pointed down at the paper with Instructions Are Here pointing near the top where she had filled her name in at. Ripping the sheets off her door, she made to tear them up when she remembered that Naruto had said he was testing her powers. He knew she was a 'Smart' Sekirei, why would he bother with a test written on a sheet?

Looking at the rules on the first sheet, she blanched before flipping through the rest of the sheets quickly with her fingers, feeling more and more embarrassed. On the last sheet was a note telling her to come find him when she was done. She tapped into the ship information network to quickly find Naruto heading to his room, and moved to meet him before he was indisposed for the night.

She caught Naruto just stepping into his room, and apologized to him by bowing to him. "I am sorry for disappointing you, Naruto-san. I didn't understand your test until you pointed it out to me."

Naruto motioned for her to come in, but had her stay by the door as he took the sheets from her and looked at them. "Do you know why I had you do something like this, Matsu?" He looked up from the sheets to her contrite face. "It was to learn a lesson I didn't learn for a very long time." He watched her look of confusion as he read the instructions on the sheet. "Do not fill out any information on the test. Turn the test over and await completion of the timeframe."

She watched as Naruto crumpled the tests up and tossed them in his wastebasket. "Being the smartest person in the world makes you the most likely to make the worst possible mistakes in the world as well. Something that seems the right answer is not always the best answer, or even the right answer." He looked at Matsu as the girl nodded to him. "Always verify your information, Matsu. Don't take the obvious answer as being the only correct answer. Eliminate all doubt, cast aside the likely response, and accept that what you think is the truth is nothing but an elaborate lie."

Picking up a laptop with a fox decal on the lid, he handed it to her. "If you can do that, then you will never be beaten." He smiled at Matsu as he opened the lid for her. "In a file on the desktop are some reading material for relaxation. Taking a break is just as important as working hard."

* * *

"He's scared of her." Mutsu murmured as they watched Naruto avoid the ice child, Akitsu, as she attempted to follow him again. Sitting in the cafeteria tent, they watched as Naruto was run out of the tent by the child before Takami called Akitsu back to her.

Karasuba growled into her peaches as she watched the little girl toddle back to Takami, a bandage wrapped around Karasuba's head from this morning's warm ups. Matsu was busy fiddling with the laptop Naruto had provided her, going through the software guts of the machine and learning the programming inside and out, her food ignored.

"He always seemed so scary to me." Kazehana murmured as she nibbled on the squid she had taken from the line. "I never thought I'd see someone scared of children."

Karasuba snorted as she stabbed another slice of peach with her fork. "I've lost all respect for him."

"When did you ever respect him?" Matsu asked, her nose in her laptop, so she never noticed the glare Karasuba shot at her.

Miya watched as Naruto was drug back into the tent by Minaka and forced into a seat across from Takami. His eyes kept flitting over to the light brown haired girl and her lunch in nervousness as the girl ate slices of carrots, her eyes staring at him. Takami was admonishing Naruto from the look of it while Minaka was gesturing wildly while posing dramatically in his seat.

She didn't approve of Naruto admonishing Asama Takehito as he did, whether it was deserved or not. No one had ever cared about what they wanted before, nor asked their opinion about what was being done to them. A place in her chest had been touched that he would be upset for them, the same place that Takehito stirred when he was alone with her.

At some point, something Minaka said drew Naruto's attention from the little girl to him, something that the blonde didn't agree with. As he was openly arguing with Minaka, Akitsu slipped out of her chair and walked around the table to the bench Naruto was sitting on. Naruto didn't pay attention to the person sitting next to him, he did happen to notice when a small body crawled into his lap and proceeded to eat from his plate.

Miya stood up reflexively as Naruto's head snapped down to his lap at the little girl in his lap. She moved to pull the girl from him as Mutsu grabbed her arm and shook his head at her. When he gestured to Naruto with his chin, Miya watched as a shaky arm reached down around Akitsu and wrapped around her lightly before returning to argue with Minaka.

"Maybe he's not as scared of children as we thought?" Kazehana asked as she smiled at them.

* * *

Kazehana was on a mission.

Generally, nothing really drove Kazehana, not even practice. She put just enough effort in that Naruto didn't push harder for her to train herself, then she idled at that level and never attempted to go higher.

Still, Kazehana could find the urge to do some things. One of those was to find some sake to imbibe. One of the adjusters had left their flask where she could find it and had taken a liking to it. Naruto had been especially upset at her for getting drunk and had her work off her buzz.

This time, she was looking for her mentor not to train, but to ask him a question she wondered about. Oh, she could have asked Takami, even Takehito, who she had a small attraction to. She had seen Miya gravitating toward Takehito more and more, and her chest ached as she watched the scientist gravitate toward her in the same way, but never toward anyone else.

She needed to ask about this from Naruto, he'd tell her, even if she didn't want to hear the answer.

She found him on the beach, the little girl, Akitsu, and a little boy with silver hair. He sat on the edge of the beach from her, tears falling from his eyes as he watched the children play in the surf.

"Naruto-san?" Kazehana politely inquired as she came upon the crying Naruto.

He turned his head to look at Kazehana before smiling wistfully at her. "Hello, Kazehana-san. Were you looking for me?"

Kazehana pushed some of her hair back from her face as she took a seat by him. "Are you alright, Naruto-san? You seem to be crying."

Naruto didn't answer immediately as he returned to watching the two children. "I was remembering a lost chance I was never allowed to take." Kazehana looked to the children, wondering what he saw when the two played with each other. "There was a woman who fell in love with me, a very long time ago, it seems now. She had hair like Miya-san, long and lavender, and she was very peaceful except when someone endangered something she truly cared for."

Kazehana watched him as he wiped his eyes. "I was too immature to understand the kind of love she had for me. I don't even think I understand her now, even after the years." Naruto mirthlessly chuckled as he adjusted himself where he sat at.

"It sounds like you loved her greatly." Kazehana spoke quietly as Naruto hummed to himself.

"Well, it does seem that way now. Maybe I love the thought of her and what I believe she tried to impart to me instead of actually knowing what her love was." Naruto shrugged, unable to even answer that with some assurance. "A man came to my home, powerful beyond even you Sekirei. In him was a pain that went beyond anything you can imagine. He killed everyone I knew, and destroyed my home with his power."

Kazehana couldn't even begin to imagine something like that. Naruto was strong, as strong as them or maybe even more, it was hard to gauge when he didn't try against them. It was only when they teamed up together against him that they started to see his full potential. Karasuba had started to obsess over defeating him, though what she intended after she did was something they didn't want to think about.

"I see those two there and I imagine them as hers and mine." Akitsu giggled as she splashed water back at the boy for splashing her.

"How do you know when you love someone?" Kazehana asked, the opportunity for her question being dropped in her lap.

Naruto smiled wistfully as he patted Kazehana's hand. "You'd want their happiness to be greater than yours." Kazehana looked at him in confusion as he stood up and stretched. Looking at her confused face, he explained. "You can love someone to obsession. You can love someone so much that you want for nothing but them. But if you really love them and truly mean it, you want them to be happy, even if you can't be there for them anymore."

He kissed Kazehana's head as he smiled down at her before moving down to the beach. "Akitsu, Homura, time for dinner!"

* * *

"Ok, we're going to do first contact with test subject Miya and Asama Takehito in room 3, and first contact with test subject Karasuba and Uzumaki Naruto in room 5." Takami announced from where she stood in the observation booth. "I want video recordings of everything that goes on during first contact and every kind of scan you can throw at them that won't kill them. If Minaka told you otherwise and you try something lethal under me, I will toss you to Naruto for punishment."

Miya nervously looked over at Takehito, her fingers fiddling with one another. She had wanted this for some time now, but she had never had the nerve to do the one thing that all Sekirei pined for since their creation.

The Winging.

A Sekirei's joining to another person through their souls entwining, binding them together in a spiritual sense and unlocking the full potential of a Sekirei. The bond tied the emotions of the Sekirei to one and only one person for life, and nothing short of death could break the bond.

"Takehito, let's start with you." Takami spoke through the speaker, Miya's face brightening in a blush as she glanced to an equally embarrassed Takehito, before averting her eyes.

Nervously smoothing his shirt, Takehito exhaled roughly before stepping in front of Miya, a wan smile on his face. "Didn't think we'd have an audience when we did this." Takehito offered weakly to the still embarrassed Miya.

The lavender haired woman looked up into the face of the man she wanted to be with, yearned to be with. Praying to something out there to listen to her most earnest wish, she arched up on her toes and meekly placed her lips to his. The world disappeared in the kiss, a sense of floating left her mind dazed but comforted. She placed her hands onto his chest and gripped his lab coat firmly as she let the kiss linger on.

"Ok, that's enough you two." Takami's voice broke the moment rudely. Miya's eyes snapped open before she settled back onto her feet and hid her face in Takehito's chest. "We didn't get any reaction from Miya, Takehito. Do you feel any different?"

Miya's eyes widened as she looked up imploringly into Takehito's face. She searched in the back of her mind, her very soul for the feeling of him in the background noise of her thoughts, but couldn't feel the fabled connection.

Takehito confirmed Miya's fears as he shook his head. "I feel the same. Nothing's changed for me."

She couldn't hide the disappointment fast enough from him. The flinch on his face hurt her as much as the failure to be Winged by him had. He wasn't her Ashikabi, that thought left a dark place in her heart.

"We'll move on to Karasuba then." Takami gave Takehito and Miya a moment to gather themselves after the failure. She could imagine that Miya would be heartbroken that Takehito wasn't the person she was to be partnered with. "I'm surprised you choose Naruto for this, Karasuba."

Karasuba frowned over at Naruto, his arms crossed in front of him as he leaned back into the wall, unconcerned. "If I have to be with someone, he's the only choice." She didn't mention out loud how she'd kill her Ashikabi for being too weak for her.

"Ok, Winging contact test, take two." Takami announced as she waited for the two to do something. "That's you, Teach."

Naruto opened his eyes, glancing up at Takami before locking his eyes on a smirking Karasuba. He pushed himself off the wall and walked himself over to her as she made no move to go to him. Looking down at the sword at her hip, he eyed her suspiciously. "Is that necessary?"

Karasuba snorted as she placed her hand over the hilt. "It's for when you get fresh. You don't need hands to kiss someone, right?"

Naruto frowned at her. "Your making a big mistake." Naruto tried one last time to talk her out of this silliness. "There's still Matsuo."

Karasuba grinned wolfishly in his face. "Do you surrender?" Karasuba challenged him to his face in the same way their first spar had gone. "You have a good look, 'Nii-chan. Show me more."

Naruto's eyes slitted as he leaned into Karasuba's space and locked lips with her.

The reaction was staggering as Karasuba's wings sprung from her back, silvery wings shaped like knives for feathers flashed out from her as her eyes widened in shock. Naruto wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into him, preventing her from backing away as Naruto completed the Winging, breaking the kiss as Karasuba's wings faded away in shimmering light.

Naruto let her drop to her knees bonelessly as he stared down at her. She stared at him, disbelieving, as he looked at her with no pity in his eyes. "Don't make promises you have no intention of keeping, 'Nee-chan."

* * *

Sitting down across from Akitsu, Naruto frowned as he stared at Akitsu, the little girl's face peering into his inquisitively. "This has bad idea painted up on the wall, Takehito." Naruto groused as he held Akitsu's hands, his thumbs rubbing the backs of the little girl's hands.

"Karasuba's reaction to you was beyond our expectations." Takehito was in full-blown science mode as he adjusted the dial on a machine before moving to the computer stationed nearby. "I'm hoping to find what is so special about you that you were able to activate Karasuba's wings, bypassing the safety we placed on her."

"She shouldn't have a limiter on her to begin with." Naruto glanced at Takehito before staring back at Akitsu. "Limiting them down to us is a crime."

"Crime or not, they can't be 'different' anymore than you and I." Takehito answered as he brought the machines up to bare minimum power. "If anyone ever finds out they're not human, all the Sekirei's lives would be at stake. It's for the best."

"_For who?"_ Naruto wondered as a look of confusion crossed Akitsu's young face.

"Alright, Akitsu. What are you feeling now?" Takehito asked as he turned on the recorder.

Akitsu blinked her eyes at Naruto, her head tilting to the side as Naruto watched her. Her eyes seemed to focus before she glanced over at Takehito. "Sleepy..." she muttered, barely loud enough to be heard over the machines.

Glancing at each other, Naruto shrugged as Akitsu looked back up at Naruto's eyes.

"Maybe I have the wrong frequency?" Takehito muttered as he tweaked a dial, causing a twinge between Naruto and Akitsu to jerk slightly. "What about now, Akitsu? What do you feel?"

Naruto watched as the little girl's eyes unfocused, her head turning left and right as she spoke softly. "Takehito-san?" Her face scrunched up in confusion as she continued to look around. "Naruto-san? Where did you go?"

Naruto's eyes scrunched as he stared at Akitsu's head. Tapping into his chakra, he lightly touched his subconscious mind to see if anything would happen. Almost immediately, he felt surprise, followed by curiosity as Akitsu's head turned back to him and stared up at his face.

"Naruto-san?" She sounded confused, but comfortable. "Where are you? I can't see you..."

"Is everything alright?" Takehito asked, looking over at the two from his seat.

Naruto shrugged before speaking to Akitsu. "Akitsu..." The surprised feeling washed over him again, followed by a light happy feeling.

"Naruto-san..." Akitsu smiled in her sleepy way as she shivered where she sat. "Your voice echoes here... Where am I?"

Naruto took a breath as he further touched his subconscious mind, forming a light meditation to perceive of Akitsu inside him. "We're going to find out if your inside me, ok?" He glanced over at Takehito who was beginning to focus more and more on his machines in front of himself. "Behind you is something. Tell me what you see, ok?" With his consciousness directing the attention of Akitsu, he took her through his mind to the seal, placing her before the gate to Kurama's resting place.

Akitsu looked dizzy for a moment before she righted herself, looking around in curiosity. "I hear singing..." Akitsu tilted her head curiously before smiling. "It's the song you sing to me before bed."

Naruto smiled lightly. Kurama had come to enjoy that lullaby before falling into the deep slumber, but that was before...

"Ah..." Akitsu shivered, her head ducking. "It got dark all of a sudden... I don't like this darkness..."

Thinking of happier memories, Naruto tucked away the hurt for a few more minutes. He thought of one happy moment where he had been involved with a wedding. One where he had been the best man at, a long time ago.

"There's a big door..." Akitsu murmured as her head tilted to the side, her fingers curling in his hands. "I can hear the singing coming from the other side of the door..."

"Light contact established." Takehito noted as he jotted down a note in his folder. "No signs of core activation, minor signs of awakening, but nothing to worry about just yet."

Naruto watched as Akitsu turned her head back and forth slowly. "I hear something else in the singing... It sounds like Naruto-san when he sleeps... all whooshing in and out..." She was quiet for a moment more before giggling. "It's red and furry... is it alive?"

Takehito peered around his monitor to Naruto, who shrugged at the scientist. No way was he explaining that Akitsu was touching a God inside of him that had taken the form of a giant fox.

"I'm not sure what else we can test." Takehito murmured as he looked at his monitors. "This would help if you could draw out a reaction to her like in Karasuba."

Naruto listened as Akitsu made happy giggling sounds as her mind touched Kurama. He could do something other than open his chakra, but what would happen to Akitsu if he did.

"Takehito." Naruto got the attention of the scientist. "Whatever happens, don't discuss what your about to see, or I'll make you go away." Naruto's glare at Takehito made the man swallow before nodding, going back to his monitors. "Akitsu. I need you to step away from the red fur, ok? I want to show you one more thing."

Akitsu giggled a few more times, as if not hearing Naruto. "It's having happy dreams. Dreams of laying in the sun and of Naruto-san and of a person with ringed eyes it calls Tou-san."

Naruto's heart clenched tightly, an ache he had long-buried opening at the girl's words. "Let me show you one more thing, then I can let you play with the Red Fur some more, ok?"

"Ah..." Aktsu tilted her head before sighing. "Ok..."

Waiting for her mind to step away from Kurama, Naruto reached out to the world around him, a world he had dwelled in for so long, he wondered if he would be around when even the world passed on. The world felt older to him through the sage chakra coming into his body, dirtier from the time the humans expanded their science across the planet. Taking a breath and preparing to filter out most of the ill feeling coming from the earth, Naruto let his Sage mode roll through him.

Akitsu's reaction was almost instantaneous as alarms starting to warble from Takehito's machines. "Core activation?! 120% synchronization with the primary wavelength?!"

"Ashikabi-sama..." Akitsu's voice ached as her back arched, her eyes thrown open in shock, but her eyes changed to clear orbs of white. "It hurts... Your heart... It hurts so much... The Red Eyes are staring... Make them stop, Ashikabi-sama... make the eyes go away..."

He felt her latch on to Kurama in pain, her spirit screaming as she sought protection, tugging on the chakra of the Kyuubi, on anything, to make the pain stop. Naruto cut off his connection with Sage mode and purged the energy, but the pain persisted, and Kurama's energy reacted, as she was tied to him through their connection.

Red Chakra exploded out of Akitsu, forcing their bond apart as Naruto was thrown bodily into a wall. Still, she had pulled on the Kyuubi's chakra, and with how much she had taken from Naruto, her thrashing persisted as she gripped her head in pain. "The spinning... They hate so much... The eyes that see the world... They want to silence it all, to make the pain stop, but cause more pain for everyone else by doing it, teaching them through pain..." She whimpered, then screamed shortly as an arm of Chakra shot out from her and tore away a section of wall. "They don't stop staring... They spin forever, the eyes that hate, the Red Eyes..."

"Demon Sage Arts - Flightless Dreaming!"

Her eyes cleared from the whites that they were, irises fading back into sight as they locked on Naruto's glowing finger pointed at her forehead. The light engulfed her, making the pain stop, making the eyes stop, making it all go away before consciousness slipped, and she collapsed at his feet.

Rolling Akitsu to her back, Naruto checked her for any foreign chakra left in her system before checking the intricate symbol on her forehead, that of a Sekirei seal in chains. Picking up the girl into his arms, he walked out of the room, ignoring Takehito behind him who could only stare on mutely.

* * *

"Miya…" Takehito's voice called out to her as she made to step outside the ship.

Turning to him, she could see him smiling weakly at her as he kept his distance from her. "I'm sorry I couldn't wing you. I wish it wasn't that way, but I think it might be different when you return."

Miya wanted to cry. She couldn't tell him that if the Winging didn't happen the first time, it wouldn't ever happen. Instead, she hid her heart from him. "I may not come back. Your army has come to stop us, much as Naruto-san said they would."

Takehito frowned before smiling to Miya once again. "Naruto said to never make a promise you couldn't keep." Takehito took out of vial of blood and showed it to her. "I promise you, Miya. With this blood sample, I'll find a way to wing you. We'll be together."

Miya couldn't look at him anymore as she turned and headed out to fight. Even if it were possible, her heart hurt too much to listen.

* * *

"She's distracted." Matsu announced next to Miya as they watched the silver-haired Sekirei slaughter her way through the foot soldiers.

Using unparalleled speed, Karasuba butchered her way past the soldiers and their guns, ignoring them as she haphazardly sliced through them and their weapons. She wasn't taunting them, nor was she enjoying the screams of the dying, her head turning occasionally to the south side of the island, an annoyed look on her face, before returning to the killing.

Mutsu had gone south for when a flanking action would be sent behind them to the far side of the island. Miya hadn't expected to split their forces up to overwhelm them, she had expected them to pour out from the sea in their amphibious vehicles and bombard them into the dirt. Matsu had killed all electronics, effectively deterring their missiles, but that didn't mean they couldn't fire their ship mounted cannons manually.

Kazehana was still taking care of the ships from the air, cutting the hulls open with sharpened blades of wind. She'd cut sections up around the guns, sinking both ship and weaponry in separate pieces to the bottom of the sea, preventing their escape as much as stopping a full attack.

"Mutsu's been gone for a while now." Matsu spoke over the carnage as Karasuba continued to rush into the waves of soldiers. "Do you think he's alright?"

As Miya turned to Matsu, the sky bled red as a titanic roar echoed across the world. A presence, both familiar and alien, washed over everyone equally. The humans who had attempted to kill the Sekirei defenders dropped to the ground in debilitated states, choking on the air as the aura of terror and death washed over everyone.

Kazehana plummeted from the air, fighting to gain control of the wind around her as she struggled to fight off the debilitating fear. Before she struck the ground, Miya had moved under her and caught her in a none too gentle catch. Barely managing to stand on her own two legs, she watched as Kazehana nodded weakly to Miya as an ungodly roar boomed across the ground a second time.

"Matsu!" Miya called over to the computer oriented Sekirei even as Matsu typed on her laptop.

Bringing up a satellite picture of the island, Matsu scanned it in the direction of the all-encompassing force. "It's not from Mutsu!" Matsu shouted as Miya struggled with Kazehana over to Matsu. "I can't get a good reading from the end of the island it's coming from, but it's along a coastline between us!"

"Beautiful…" Karasuba murmured to herself as her eyes stared in unfocused bliss as she shuffled past them, unaffected by the pressure. "So much anger… The bloodlust… It's beautiful…" Before Miya could grab ahold of her, she bolted off in the direction of the terror.

Cursing under her breath, Miya turned to Kazehana. "Retreat back to the ship as best you can. Signal Mutsu to get under cover away from this." Turning after Karasuba, she took off after the crazed Sekirei, doing her best to push her power against the terror.

She caught up to Karasuba on a beach head just before the dip to the shore. The silver-haired Sekirei weaved where she stood, her eyes closed as she moved in time with the pressure wave from the killing intent as it pulsed like a gigantic heartbeat. Miya was just able to step up behind Karasuba before collapsing to her hands and knees, the force pressing on her body from every angle, making it hard to breathe.

All her senses faded one by one as she tried to stay awake and aware, focusing on pushing back the force of nature as the world had suddenly decided that it's laws needed revising. Spit flew from her lips as she expelled a lungful of air, forcing her eyes to look up at the thing that was causing this ungodly force.

Her eyes locked on an impossible sight that brought an unholy terror to her mind and soul. Her mind could not comprehend what she observed, only in broken fragments as her sanity tried to reboot, gathering fragments of understanding before the terror caused her awareness to shut down to a more primal level out of survival instincts.

It was Red.

As if anything could be expressed by a simple color, the presence was too much of everything in her mind. She sucked another breath into her lungs slowly, fighting to keep awake as her brain locked upon another fact.

It had Tails.

Gigantic tails swung back and forth behind it, the air pressure causing waves even as it ripped to pieces the ships that had attempted a pincer maneuver between the two fronts, hoping to crush both at once. Even as she struggled to exhale, her brain locked on one more facet.

It was a Fox.

The force of death and terror was a massive fox, standing in the ocean where ships smaller than it would never be able to touch. The black fur around the eyes highlighted the monster's gaze as it swung its head around and glared malevolent at another ship as it had brought its weapons around to bear on the titan. Firing its deck guns, the monstrous animal sprung into the air, avoiding the projectiles with ease as it pounced on the ship, tearing it into flotsam from its body weight as it drove it into the depths of the ocean.

It's roar of victory echoed across the sky as it turned its gaze to the shore and to the two Sekirei to see it, its eyes narrowing. Miya's awareness slipped, losing focus on her surroundings, she struggled to get back her clarity of thought. Her eyes refocused on a massive animal over her, and the unbridled fear the monster pushed down on them. Karasuba had tears trailing down her cheeks, a smile on her face as she reached above her head upwards to the animal, a hand reaching out as if needing to touch the animal.

Her awareness slipped again, and when she was able to focus again, a glowing red Naruto stood before both of them. Energy in the form of tails weaving around his back as if the tails waved lazily behind him, his face held only blood lust and anger. Karasuba had pressed her body up against Naruto's, her head rubbing against his chest as his arm wrapped around her waist.

Reality washed away from her after that as her body gave out and she fell unconscious.

* * *

5 Months Later

She settled her nerves as she smoothed over her kimono. The butterflies in her stomach couldn't be settled, her fingers tingled deliciously as she checked herself in the mirror one more time.

Takehito had done it. She couldn't believe it when he had asked her for a farewell kiss before heading back to the mainland for personal reasons, but when he had captured her lips, she felt as their souls tied to each other. She had not been able to go with him on their wedding night, but she could feel him back to the island, and she wanted their first night together to be special.

She knew the very moment he stepped off the plane, his mood was somber, but light as he made his way back to her from the airfield. She had been tempted to meet him at the entrance, but instead had decided to prepare their bed and herself for this moment.

He had gone to the chamber where the embryos were still held in cryonics, more than likely looking for Takami and ask about the work he was so dedicated in. He had even head over to his office for a few moments before turning for the private quarters and her.

She felt him even now in the hallway outside, walking down the corridor to their room. The lightness in his heart warmed her to her toes as he stopped outside their door. She smoothed her kimono down and sat in seiza as she waited for him to come through the door. The sense of him became confused, jumbled as he stayed outside the doorway. Her stomach fluttered in worry as the presence turned from the door and walked off.

Her confusion matched the presence outside her door as it walked off. Something was wrong, she was sure that Takehito would have come right in, but something else had sent his emotions from the light, pleasant feel to an uneasy confused feeling. She closed her eyes and focused on the connection, hoping to get a feel of the thing that was bothering him.

She felt two connections light up to her. A light warm feeling of nostalgia hidden behind the stronger irritated confused feeling. The distances between the two feeling was all wrong, as if there was a second person being overshadowed by the first. The confused feeling turned to shock and disgust, then blinding rage. A feeling of hot death flew across her mind, the sound of an animal crying out loudly, and the world became bathed in red.

The Next Day

"What's the damage?" Takami asked as she lit a cigarette, looking down at a bandaged Hiroto Minaka as Asama Takehito read from a clipboard.

"A lot of the ship is no longer functioning. Many of the scientists are recovering from terror induced shock." Takehito wiped at the sweat on his brow as he loosened his collar. "They're still cleaning up Junpachi from the wall Naruto smeared him across."

Takami growled as she bit into the butt of her cigarette. She had warned that scientist to clean his act up, or there would be hell to pay. When Naruto had come to visit Akitsu and found out that her Winging had been artificially forced by the same scientist who had dealt with Karasuba and Matsu, they were lucky no one else had died.

They'd never be able to use that part of the ship ever again.

"How's Karasuba?" Takami asked as she looked down in to the isolation room below her. The dirty silver hair of Karasuba sat hunched over in a corner, the furniture had been destroyed and used as a weapon to try to break out in any way she could.

"She's refusing to listen to anyone." Takehito flipped a sheet up to show the vitals of Karasuba. "Since being Winged by Naruto, her body is heightening beyond human once again. All the restrictions we placed on her are being over ridden by whatever the Winging caused, unlocking her full potential even without Naruto around."

If she ever found out what happened to that blonde bastard afterwards, she'd kick his ass.

"How about yourself?" Takami asked as she looked at the scientist who was beginning to sweat more. He looked surprised at her. "I know you took that blood sample and mixed Miya's blood into it before injecting it into yourself. You're starting to show signs of rejection."

Takehito winced as a sharp pain shot through him. "Naruto-san said that there might be rejection for a few weeks as the blood worked its course. Still, he did guarantee it would allow me to wing Miya as we both want."

Takami frowned as she inhaled off her cancer stick. It was unusual for someone to inject themselves with blood from another recipient without at least checking the blood type, and yet there he stood, showing signs of fighting off the blood and very much alive. Their blonde associate was leaving them more and more questions that shouldn't have been possible.

"Did he say anything about how it was supposed to work?" Takami asked as Takehito took a seat, drained from the look on his face.

Takehito smiled wanly up at her. "Only that it was something that humanity lost."

Takami snorted. "You should have let me take a sample of it."

Takehito smiled weakly to her before looking back at the paperwork. "Mutsu was found missing shortly after when they started doing a head count. We think he snuck out on the supply ship, but they're suspiciously not responding to any hails from us." He cleared his throat covering a wince of pain as he continued. "No one saw him leave the island, all the planes and boats are accounted for, yet an entire search of the island shows that both Mutsu and Naruto are no longer here with us. Akitsu isn't saying anything and Karasuba was found with this on her forehead."

She held up the little piece of ofuda

"He's gone." Takami growled as she glared at Minaka. "This idiot tried to help him leave and Naruto beat him to within an inch of his life for allowing that bastard to mess with Karasuba and Akitsu. If he had found out that he had begun to tinker with Homura…"

Takami butted her cigarette on the sill and looked back toward Karasuba who had begun to cry into her knees. "How is Homura?"

"It's bad." Takehito announced. The frustrated look on his face left him looking like he was on death's door. "Homura's genetic code is unstable. His body is in flux, and his gender is no longer assured. If he gets winged, it may settle his code, but it may force his change from a man to a woman indefinitely." He eyed Takami with a hard stare. "It will wholly depend on his Ashikabi."

Takami frowned as she watched Karasuba cry herself out before taking up her vigil once again in her corner. "Takehito." Takami peered at the scientist behind her out of the corner of her eye. "If you knew how to contact Naruto, you'd tell me, right?"

Takehito smiled weakly. "You'd be the very first person I'd tell."

Takami watched as Karasuba rubbed at her eyes with the palm of one hand before returning to glaring up at her. They were going to need something for the abandoned Sekirei to focus on, or she would become emotionally unbalanced. Well, moreso than she already was. "Activate Yume, get her up to speed quickly, I want Miya and Karasuba supervising her training."

Hopefully, Mutsu's replacement would keep Karasuba somewhat focused here instead of wherever the hell Naruto had gone to.

* * *

The tears fell with the rain, as if the sky grieved with her. Standing before the marker of her husband, her heart felt as if it had been ripped from her chest and crushed in her face. She had felt as the bond between them had faded away to nothing with the life of her husband, yet she did not deactivate as should have happened between bonded.

He had tried to tell her about how he had been bonded to her, how it had been thanks to Uzumaki Naruto's blood that they had been given the time together that they had.

She hated him, the blonde man who had trained her in combat. She had found out from the doctors that Takehito's condition was the result of his blood being turned into a caustic miasma that was eating his circulatory system away slowly. Takehito had tried to calm her down, to tell her not to hate him, but he was the man who had taken her love from her.

What was she supposed to do now? She was a Sekirei without an Ashikabi now, as broken as the Angel of Ice, Akitsu. She was tired of fighting for something she couldn't believe in anymore, and honestly, Minaka's Sekirei Plan went against her morals. It was why she and Takehito had broken ties with MBI, why they had founded the Izumo Inn, and why they had wanted a haven for others to be able to go to when they had nowhere else.

Now….? She didn't think she could do it by herself, not without him by her side. It was too much, it was all too much without him. She traced her hand over the grave marker, silently vowing to return to visit him tomorrow, then turned and left for their home.

By the time she had made it back to Izumo Inn, she had resigned herself to staying at Izumo. It would be filled with painful memories for her, but it was filled with memories of him as well. It was their hope, their dream. She wouldn't be the one to have it die without even trying. Takehito would understand, but she would not accept anything but victory.

Placing her hand on the door to the Inn, she realized she sensed a presence in the back of her mind, much like the weak bond she had with her husband, but so much stronger than his. The feeling was somber, if melancholic, and patient as she felt they had turned their attention toward her. A resigned quality washed along the bond even as she opened the door and made her way to the living room, anger bubbling up in her as she flung the door open and glared death at the blonde haired man who had taken her husband from her.

"I heard Takehito and you had bought this place, so I came to visit." Naruto wistfully smiled as he looked around the room from where he sat at the dining table. "It's good wood." Naruto noted the beams overhead before looking at the floor and patting the tatami mats. "You made good roots for yourselves here."

"Get out!" Miya shouted at him, the need to draw her sword screaming in her head. "Get out of our house, you monster!"

Naruto frowned at Miya as the woman vibrated in anger. He watched her dominant hand clench over and over as if wanting to strike him, the killer intent radiating from her making it clearly obvious what she thought of his presence here.

"He passed, didn't he?" Naruto asked forlornly, watching Miya full body twitch as if she had been struck at her core by his words alone. Sighing, Naruto looked down at the tabletop in resignation. "He should have called me. I could have saved him."

Miya's eyes changed from hatred to confusion."Saved him? You gave him the blood that made him sick!"

Naruto looked up at Miya, his face blank as she accused him outright. "He didn't tell you…"

A secret? Takehito had kept something from her, something that could have kept him alive to be with her? Didn't he say that he loved her, though?

Naruto smiled sadly to Miya as he stood and patted himself down, straightening his track suit out. He came over and hugged Miya, who returned to being outraged at him before he patted her head, ignoring her hostility.

"Don't hate him for his decision." Naruto smiled at her, trying to ease the ache in Miya's heart.

The slap to his face wasn't totally unexpected. The Judo throw into the backyard was executed with the smallest effort. The force of impact into the tree nearly broke the trunk as he hit and fell boneless to the ground.

"You come in to our home, our lives, and you ruined everything! You bring misfortune with you and wear it like a cloak! I can't begin to describe how badly I hate you, and I never want you to come back to my husband's house, or heaven help me, I will kill you! Now get out!" Miya spat at him in resentment before turning on her heel and heading back into the house, heading back to the sanctuary that was her room.

When she returned, Naruto had left the premises, the tree left unmarred in his passing.

* * *

"Sahashi Minato!" Naruto called out to the depressed teenager as he walked away from the recruitment board.

The brown-haired boy looked up over his shoulder in a melancholic daze, an aura of depression hanging over him as he searched for the person who had called him. The blonde haired man in the orange track suit made him wince and attempt to avert his eyes from the eyesore and the guilt as he waited for his mentor to come over to him.

"Didn't make the grade, I see." The adult sighed as he approached the boy, his hand rubbing through his hair in frustration. "Honestly, Minato, you know the academics, I've tested you myself on the academics. You could be teaching here for Kami's sake, yet you knee jerk freeze up as if a wrong move will cause the world to end. Do you really want to be yelled at by your sister again?"

Minato shivered, the thought of his sister berating him was one thing, but she had learned it from their mother, and she was a complete bitch at times. He knew she wasn't going to be happy about him not passing again.

"Well, say something Freeter." The man poked him in the forehead with his finger hard enough to break him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry, Sensei. I have no excuse." He turned to face the blonde haired man and bowed to him, ashamed of himself. The chop to the back of his head caught him by surprise and with a bit of pain as well.

"You didn't get in, so you're not a student by me, Minato." The man grinned at him as Minato winced, standing back up and rubbing the back of his head. "Call me by my name, remember?"

Minato weakly laughed as he rubbed a little longer the back of his head, this time in embarrassment. "Sorry, Uzumaki-san. I forgot."

Naruto sighed forlornly. "Seriously? Uzumaki-san? When did I get so old?" Switching from depressed to serious, Naruto eyed Minato. "I'm still waiting Minato. Why did you drop the ball so completely. I graded your tests after all."

His embarrassment doubled, Minato sputtered as he realized Naruto had taken the time to grade his test first hand. "It's… Well… I'm…" He sighed, the blue eyes of Naruto calling him on the denial he was trying to work up to. "I don't know whether I even want to be here, Uzumaki-san." Naruto just continued to look at him as he waited, as if he knew there was more behind that comment. "My whole life has been planned out for me, or at least, the expectations have been placed on me. I want my mother to be proud, but sometimes I feel as if she's expecting me to be the next greatest scientist much the same way as she is in MBI. It's just…"

Naruto patted Minato's shoulder, stopping the boy's thoughts as Naruto smiled into his bewildered face. "So make a decision about what you want to do and do it. It will be hard at first, but you have to live your life, even if the people who watch you live it don't like the decisions you make. They are your decisions, yes?"

Minato looked stunned at the thought before smiling lightly. That's why he liked Uzumaki Naruto, the unconventional thought that threw duty and complacency in the face of tradition and did his own thing, which amounted to doing what people wanted him to do, just at his own time and pace. Being mentored under the blonde haired man who was unorthodox in the extreme, he had hoped to learn how to be more forthright. Maybe he should have been himself instead of trying to be like this man?

His phone started to ring, bringing him out of his thoughts. Looking down at the face of the cell phone, he blanched as his family was calling him. He made to answer the phone when Naruto plucked it from his hand and promptly pressed end, sending the called to voicemail. Minato started sweating in fear as Naruto them turned the phone off and put it into his pocket.

"Now you can say that I found your phone here at school and you are going to come back later for it if anyone asks, Kay?" Naruto smiled in the way that made his black, whisker like marks on his cheeks stand out. "I'm sure they'll let it slide just this once." He could read the nervousness in Minato's face, the look of doubt in his eyes. Rolling his own eyes, Naruto reached into his pocket and dumped a handful of yen coins in the kid's hand. "If you feel that strongly about it, go use a pay phone. Just explain you forgot your phone back at the testing area and you'll get it later."

"Arigato, Uzumaki-san." Minato bowed to him before running back toward the school to find a pay phone.

Naruto rubbed his head in exasperation. It was hard dealing with Minato and his confidence issues sometimes.

"Get out of the way!" A female shout drew Naruto's attention skyward. He had time enough to realize a woman in a red skirt was falling toward him before being knocked flat on his back, the air being knocked out of him.

Naruto blinked where he lay as he assessed what just happened. It had been years since a woman had fallen on him out of the air, if he felt right. Also, it had been many, many years since he had been in a situation where someone had come at him from an unexpected angle and surprised him. The training on Kamikura Island had been more a refresher than real training for him, and even then, they had kept to linear attacks.

Looking down at the body, he tried very hard to ignore the panties and the shapely rear they were hiding underneath the red skirt that was planted in his face. "Itai… Guess it was a little too high to jump from…"

She got to her hands and knees before crawling off of him, sitting down to the side as she rubbed her head. Sitting up, Naruto took in the girl's characteristics. Brown princess cut hair framed a face more cute than anything else. One single strand of hair bobbed above her face in defiance of gravity, much like the girls chest. Expressive brown eyes above a pert nose and pouting lips placed against fair skin dressed in a Miko top and red skirt. As if to contrast the rest of it, the girl wore red combat gloves on her hands as if she was a fighter girl from a monastic temple.

Getting to his feet and giving himself a quick pat down, he placed a hand down in front of the girl's face. She looked up, confused at him as he smiled down to her. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Taking Naruto's hand, she smiled at him as he helped her up to her feet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall on you."

"Nothing to worry about, but next time you should jump from a little lower spot, okay?" Naruto looked back up from the building the girl had fallen from, gauging the distance. "Maybe slow your fall down by bouncing from one wall to another? You should work up to larger and longer leaps before doing them all at once."

His eyes caught sight of two women dressed in matching suits that looked like rubber or latex outfits, one a dark purple, the other a dark red. Raven haired and slightly mussed, the girls could have passed for twins, except one was slightly less developed as the other. They peered down toward him, or more than likely the girl beside him before clasping hands with each other. The electricity that danced across and around the two didn't go unnoticed as they gestured down at his site, a bolt of energy ripping from their arms toward them.

Naruto grabbed the girl beside him and moved instinctually. The bolt of energy missed, more a warning shot than anything else, but the ground was charred and cracked from where the bolt impacted at proving how dangerous the energy was.

"Stop running and face us already, No. 88!" The bustier of the two shouted down at them as she placed one booted foot on the edge of the rooftop. "We're not going to stop chasing you until you face us!"

The girl next to him looked up at the roofs, her face showing her frustration as she shouted back. "I don't wanna fight yet! I haven't found my Ashikabi!"

"We don't care!" The first girl continued to shout as her sister took her hand and they charged up another attack. "Find your Ashikabi in the next life!"

The girl was already turning and running away as the attack leapt from the twins and toward the street where they stood. Naruto found as he jumped away that his hand had been caught by the brown-haired girl's and that she was leading them away from the two above them. Frustrated cursing and shouting called down to them from above as the girl continued to lead Naruto off first one way, then another as she sped away from them.

It would be an hour of hard running as they backtracked over some of the places they had gone before she finally came to a stop. She breathed heavily as she kept an eye on the roofs while Naruto kept an eye on her.

"So, you're being chased, huh?" He spoke to her, and was surprised when the girl jumped slightly, squeezing his hand tighter from nerves as she realized he was standing next to her. She didn't even seem to realize that he wasn't even breathing hard where she had a light sheen of sweat on her brow. "You didn't do anything wrong, did you?"

She pouted as she sighed. "I was only released today from MBI when they started following me. They kept trying and trying to get Musubi to fight them, but Musubi needs to find her Ashikabi before she can fight them. They're being so mean to Musubi."

"I'm guessing that's your name then." Naruto asked, getting a confused look from the girl. "I never got your name when you fell on me, and we've run ever since. See?" He held up their hand that was still clasped together. Musubi realized she was still holding on to his hand and released it with a weak laugh, scratching at the back of her head weakly. "Nice you meet you, Musubi-chan. I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"Please to meet you." The girl turned to him with a smile and bowed however she lost her balance and fell into him head first.

Naruto quickly caught her and eased her down to her knees as he looked in Musubi's suddenly worn out face. "Hey, Musubi, are you ok? You look like you're about ready to pass out."

She answered him, but not in words. A large rumbling sound came from her midriff and she moaned weakly. "So hungry…" the tone of her voice an indication of how weak she was.

Naruto wondered if someone was messing with him…

* * *

Taking her back to an apartment on the edges of the northern district, Naruto watched as she ate her way through everything he had cooked for them, including his own share of food. He knew for a fact that his food wasn't that tasty, having eaten it for longer than he could or want to remember, but having the shining, sparkly look given to him after she literally licked the plate clean left him pretty much speechless.

"Thank you so much for sharing your food with me!" Musubi smiled brightly at him. "You watched over me and took care of Musubi when you didn't have to…" She sighed longingly as she closed her eyes and murmured wistfully, "I wish someone like you was Musubi's Ashikabi."

Naruto winced at the sound of longing coming from the girl. Picking up the plates and the utensils, he headed to the kitchen, unable to look her in the face anymore. "I'm glad you enjoyed my mediocre cooking. It's been awhile since anyone complimented me on my food." Lavender hair and pale eyes flashed in his mind before he could ignore it. He put a minimal effort into smiling as he called to Musubi in the dining room. "What do you plan on doing now?" He heard a distracted sound coming from the room and leaned back, peering through the doorway at a Musubi who was inspecting his pictures and knick knacks. "This Ashikabi you're looking for, do you even know how to find him or her?"

Musubi hummed in thought before smiling brightly in his direction. "Musubi will find her Ashikabi! Musubi's Ashikabi is waiting for Musubi! Musubi only has to find them!"

Naruto grinned at her before returning to the sink. "They're a very lucky person then. I'm sure you'll make them happy, Musubi."

He heard her affirmative and could imagine her nodding emphatically to the sound, fists clenched up in front of her as she put her all into her answer. Finishing up the dishes, he dried his hands out as he directed Musubi to the bathroom to clean herself for the night before bed. She had offered to have him join her, which he politely declined, stating that the only person who should bathe with her should be her Ashikabi.

Setting up the futon, Naruto left a set of sweats and a shirt just inside the doorway, removing her clothes to wash them for tomorrow's trials. Having made sure that all was in its place, he pulled out a blanket for himself and sat it on the back of the couch for his own comfort tonight. He nearly swallowed his tongue when Musubi came out of the bathroom sans clothes, looking lost and confused.

"Naruto-san, have you seen Musubi's clothes?" She asked, the water still beading on her skin.

"Musubi, towel!" Naruto pointed back into the bathroom from where she came from.

Musubi looked down at herself in confusion before looking back up at Naruto, whose back had turned to her as he held a hand up to his face. "A towel?"

"Go back in the bathroom and put on the clothes I left in there for you, or at least cover up your body!" Naruto gestured back again in the general direction of the bathroom. It had been way too long since he had seen a woman unclothed, and some things just didn't lessen over time, a libido being one of them.

He heard her feet pad back out of the room, and he breathed deeply before looking down at himself. "That was a shock, wasn't it?" No answer was forthcoming, thankfully.

Musubi returned dressed in the clothes Naruto had left for her, though she was frowning at the fabric, as if unsure about the type of clothes being worn.

"I know it might be a bit warm, but I promise to get you your clothes back in the morning. I put them in the wash so that you had something clean to wear when we get up." He ignored how Musubi filled out the clothes he had previously worn for his job when subbing in for the gym teachers.

"Ah, thank you for being so kind to Musubi. You've done so much for me." She bowed to him, her arms pressing her breasts together. Standing back up, she smiled brightly to Naruto. "Musubi has been so lucky to meet you, Naruto-sama."

Naruto caught the suffix change, but didn't physically react to it. He nodded to Musubi as he rubbed her head before heading to the bath himself, but not before picking up an ink bottle and a small art brush from a table in the living room. "Let me take my bath now, and we'll see about settling down for the night, ok?" He waved lightly to Musubi before disappearing into the bathroom changing area with a set of sweats and a light shirt.

Some 20 minutes later, Naruto returned from the bathroom towel in one hand, ink bottle in another. He placed the ink bottle back into its place on the table in the living room, where he noticed Musubi was looking at a painting he was halfway through making. He stood behind her as he watched the young woman trace the lines of a white kimono, the lavender hair flowing down the woman's back and across one shoulder as she smiled wistfully ahead. Pale, pearl like eyes stared at the falling cherry blossoms that were in the process of being added, the buds of the tree incomplete.

Musubi touched the curve of the woman's jaw lightly, trailing her fingers over the cheek to the woman's lips and up to the lustrous hair. The picture talked to something inside her that stirred when she looked at this picture, feeling the love that the person who made it obviously felt in the picture.

"She's pretty, isn't she?" Naruto's quiet voice didn't startle her more as it sent a sensation like longing through her. Musubi glanced back at him as he stood by the doorway, unsure of the look on his face as he watched her. "She was a woman I had the pleasure of knowing a long time ago."

Musubi stepped back and took the picture in as a whole, the old style house in the background with the door slightly open, a mountain in the background under a clear blue sky, yet the picture still seemed to draw attention back to the woman in front, as if nothing else about it made any difference.

"She looks very happy." Musubi murmured as Naruto walked past her to the picture, humming to himself as he drew a sheet over it to cover it for the night.

"She tried to be happy, if not for herself, then for others." Naruto touched the sheet reverently where the girl would be in the portrait before smiling to Musubi. "Time for bed, Musubi. You take the bed, I'll be on the couch tonight."

Musubi frowned slightly as she fidgeted in place. "Naruto-sama won't be sleeping with me in bed?"

Naruto shook his head lightly. "Musubi should only share a bed with her Ashikabi."

Musubi pouted where she stood before gaining a determined look on her face and looking back up at Naruto. "Will Naruto-sama be Musubi's Ashikabi?"

Naruto looked at Musubi, his eyes showing a brief touch of expectation followed by a heavy set of resignation. "I'm afraid I can't be your Ashikabi, Musubi."

"But!" Musubi blurted out as she stepped toward Naruto, her heart twisting in her chest. "But Naruto-sama has been so kind and helpful! Please, Please let Musubi be your Sekirei!"

Naruto winced before sighing, looking dejected. "I'm pretty sure I can't be your Ashikabi, Musubi-san. I'm very sorry."

Musubi looked near to tears, her voice weak as she looked at the floor between them. "Can Musubi at least try? Musubi wants to try being Naruto-sama's Sekirei."

He wanted to say no, anything but what he was about to do, but he knew he couldn't step on her any worse than what was about to happen. "Alright, Musubi. You can try." The smile on her face twisted the knife in his chest, but he asked the question that needed to be asked. "So, how do you go about being my Sekirei? Do we shake on it or something?"

Musubi closed the distance between them, her cheeks flushed as her heart rate skyrocketed. "Musubi will show Naruto-sama how to become an Ashikabi."

She took his hand nervously in hers and smiled up at him before tilting her face up and kissing him on the lips, putting her heart into the kiss. They remained that way for several minutes, Musubi's first kiss with another person making her light-headed but yearning to stay this way for as long as she could, but even so, she eventually broke the kiss to catch her breath. She laid her forehead against Naruto's chest as Naruto wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding her gently to him.

"Are you ok, Musubi?" Naruto asked tentatively to the girl, bringing her attention around to him again.

Musubi frowned as she looked up at his worried eyes. She had done everything right, she had expressed herself through her kiss with him, she put all her emotions into that one moment, and yet…

"I don't understand…" Musubi muttered in confusion. She took his lips again, kissing him harder, delving her tongue into his mouth, trying as hard as she could be to Winged by Naruto. Naruto held her with both of his arms, kissing her back, returning her kiss with a skill that spoke of practice, yet when Musubi broke the kiss, she stared worriedly up at Naruto. "Why can't Musubi be winged by Naruto-sama?"

Naruto smiled sadly at Musubi. "I'm sorry, Musubi-chan." He reached up with his hand to the back of her head and guided her into his chest where she began to sniffle, before crying into him. Tilting his head at the roof, he wondered not for the first time why him?

* * *

Musubi cried herself to sleep, Naruto doing his best to take care of the distraught Sekirei as he put her to bed where she settled into an uncomfortable slumber. The failure to be Winged by Naruto hit Musubi hard, putting her into a depression she wasn't easily motivated from. Stepping out to restock his food supplies, he noticed the two lightning girls from yesterday circling the area in a sweeping search pattern, their pursuit of Musubi not called off yet.

He had half a mind to put them down permanently, then imagined the person they may have been tied to weeping over their unresponsive bodies dashed those thoughts before they got underway. He'd done enough fighting for so many lifetimes, let the young do the fighting from now on. Returning home, he found Musubi staring at the painting in his living room of the lavender haired girl, and knew he had to get her out of the his house and to someone who might be able to help her.

However, going there was going to put his life at risk.

* * *

They walked a street he hadn't been down in almost ten years to a place he had been told to never come back to by a woman he had no doubts would cleave him in two the moment she saw him. In all honesty, he wanted to honor her wish, being the reason she was a widow in a way. Looking over at the depressed Musubi, he figured it was better to find others like her than it was to keep her around him. The reminder of her being unable to wing him wouldn't go away until she stopped being around him. Maybe then she would be able to find someone else.

He reached into his left pocket, brushing his fingers over the small ink bottle and the art brush, his nerves being set to high-strung as they headed for Izumo. Musubi's depression was taking her toll on her normally happy outlook. She didn't ask where they were going, simply accepted that Naruto had asked her to come with him as they were going to go see someone about something. There were no questions about what they were going for or who they were going to see, not even a how did they know each other came from the depressed brunette.

He glanced over at her as they came to a T intersection when someone barged into him, jostling him but knocking them off their feet in front of them. He caught a look of glasses before the person seemed to panic and jump to their feet before quickly apologizing and running off down the street they were headed. Naruto glanced over to the just as confused Musubi as Musubi looked at him before he gave her a slight shrug before moving on, putting the matter behind them.

After another 30 minutes, they came to a stop in front of an old inn built-in the traditional style of old Japanese architecture. Shoji doors and paper screens on the front of the building and a few of the windows had the paper removed to show that there was real glass panes behind them in proper frames. Still, the illusion of proper Japanese housing persisted, bringing a wistful smile to Naruto's face while Musubi seemed to brighten a little.

"Naruto-sama." Musubi asked, her voice lighter than it had been all day. "Is this the house in your painting?"

Naruto chuckled a bit, turning his eyes to the building. "No, not quite. There is a lavender haired woman here, but not the one in my picture, I'm afraid." He steeled himself for what he was about to do, Musubi noticing him psyching himself up before setting his face in determination. "There's someone here I want to introduce to you, however."

Walking the short distance from the street to the door, he was already cataloging the feeling coming from inside the house. Serenity pervaded the grounds and the building, a fabricated peace built around the Matriarch of the house. He could hear the sounds of two other people from the second floor, more than likely the tenants of the building. From the back of the house he felt the bundle of gentle happiness and contentment that signified his bond to Miya.

Naruto hesitated at the door. Should he suddenly announce himself? The seal over his left ab prevented Miya from sensing him, but it didn't work the other way where he couldn't feel her. He had placed it there ever since being tossed out of Izumo and had left her to her self-imposed isolation, never hinting that he had never left Shinto Teito. Which would be kinder to do?

Making his decision, he rapped on the door and waited, feeling the surprise turned toward them from the back of the house and the mild curiosity lacing itself through her emotions. Naruto took two steps back from the door, moving back far enough not to cast a shadow on the door as they awaited the hostess and owner of Izumo.

The curiosity in her emotions turned to an acidic hate as soon as she opened the door, her face caught in a partial smile as she realized who stood before her. Words were on her lips as she started to rip into him when she saw the confused brunette standing next to him, looking for all the world as if she had lost something special.

"Musubi, I'd like to introduce you to Asama Miya of Izumo Inn." Naruto introduced the lavender haired woman to Musubi while Miya attempted to figure out his relationship to this woman beside him. "Miya-san this is Musubi, a new Sekirei from MBI. She's just been sent out into Shinto Teito and has nowhere to go. I'd like to make arrangements for her to live here with you."

"Naruto-sama?" Musubi asked in shock as Miya glared at Naruto. The shock and hurt in Musubi's voice raising the hackles on Miya's neck.

"You bound yourself to another one?" Miya accused angrily as her eyes darted over Musubi and Naruto. Musubi turned in surprise to Miya as Naruto winced.

"Bound? Naruto-sama has a Sekirei?" Musubi looked up at Naruto, her eyes asking unspoken questions as Naruto looked at Miya in resignation.

"No, Miya. I couldn't Wing her." Miya's eyebrow rose sharply at that statement. Nothing should have prevented him from Winging a Sekirei save death. That something had stopped their bonding, any bonding, was unprecedented.

"Why come to me?" Miya asked, her voice challenging and authoritative. "I abandoned Minaka's plans long ago. You know this."

Naruto stroked Musubi's head as he ignored the pleading eyes, eyes he couldn't look at without the guilt involved with such a deed. "She will need to find someone who can Wing her eventually. It'd be better if she was protected by someone who can properly care for her than to stay with someone who can't Wing her." Left unsaid was the fact that Naruto accepted Miya's accusations. Takehito was an unnecessary death that could have been avoided if he had been more attentive.

"Naruto-sama…" The defeated sound of Musubi's voice killed him inside, but he did his best to ignore it.

Miya watched the trembling girl in shrine priestess top and red skirt. Looking back up to Naruto's face, she wondered what the blonde was playing at. It was obvious to her that Musubi had made her decision and was suffering because of it, yet Naruto was trying to push the girl off on her instead of doing what anyone else would have done.

She decided to see what Namikaze's game was by ignoring his request for a moment and trying a different tactic. "I swore I'd kill you if you ever came back here." Musubi gasped, turning to look at Miya whose face had gone cold, glaring at Naruto as if wishing he were dead. "You know I'm a woman of my word, and yet you dare to come to my husband's house again."

"Musubi needs someone to watch over her that will care for her." Naruto placed a hand on Musubi's shoulder, preventing the girl from standing in front of him. "Will you help her or not?"

_'So, he is doing this for her…'_ Miya reached inside the door frame and took hold of a bokken for emergencies that required her to defend her house at the front door. Holding it out in front of her, she placed both hands to the hilt and took a kendo stance. "Are you willing to pay the price for coming here? Even if it is because of what you say?"

"Naruto-sama…" Musubi struggled with Naruto, trying to pull him toward her. "Don't…"

"If you'll take her in, I'll take any punishment you wish to give me." Naruto spoke with conviction, his gaze firm as he stared at Miya.

"No!" Musubi got in between him and Miya, her arms spread out to prevent Miya from passing by her. "I don't want to stay without Naruto-sama! So you have no reason to hurt him!"

"Musubi…" Naruto tried to calm the young woman, but she shook her head firmly.

"Naruto-sama was kind to Musubi!" She was shouting now, tears flying from her eyes as she tried to impress her wish on the older woman. "He protected Musubi from the bad people, and let Musubi have his food, and he even gave his bed to Musubi! Musubi just wants to be with Naruto-sama, even if she can't be his Sekirei!"

"That's enough, Musubi!" Naruto barked, spiking his chakra. It had the effect of stopping Musubi's desperate plea, but also drew Miya's k.i. toward him.

Musubi pressed her back into Naruto as she glared at Miya, tears lingering in her eyes. "I won't let you hurt my Ashikabi…"

Miya didn't miss the look Naruto's face took when Musubi stated he was hers. She'd seen that look on his face one other time, the day he had bonded with Karasuba. He looked as if he had been stabbed in the chest by someone he trusted like family.

"I'm sorry, Asama-san." Naruto bowed his head to Miya over Musubi. "I've disturbed your house once again. I'll pack and leave Shinto Teito tonight." Musubi looked back at Naruto, deathly afraid that he'd leave her behind. "Yes, we'll leave together Musubi. I've hurt you enough for one day."

Miya released her grip on the bokken, satisfied with what she had seen. She may not have liked that he had come to her house again, but he had done it for good intentions. For today, she could put aside her animosity, if just for today.

"A moment, Namikaze-san." Miya spoke as Naruto and Musubi made to leave. They turned back to her, one surprised to be spoken to in a non hostile fashion, the other mistrustful after the threats to her Ashikabi. "Please come inside. I have questions I would like to ask you before I lose a chance I may never have again. We have much to talk about."

* * *

Sitting at the dining table of Izumo Inn, Naruto let a melancholic moment pass over him as he looked around the room. Even by herself, she had kept the house looking pristine. It was like time had frozen on that day when he had come back to see how the newlywed couple were doing, only to find that he had missed the wedding and funeral both. He didn't like to see people he was close to pass away, even if they had only known each other for a short few months. Asama Takehito could be called one of the better people he had the privilege of knowing.

Miya walked back in with the tea set and placed it at the table, some crackers for foodstuff to go with the tea. Musubi did not consider Miya very nice and was watching her carefully for any signs that the landlady was going to continue to threaten Naruto.

Taking a sip of her tea, Miya placed her cup down in front of her and looked at Naruto in speculation. "Where were you?" Naruto had raised the tea to his lips, but the question caused him to freeze. "Takehito trusted you. I never could get him to tell me why, but he always said that you were someone he could place his trust in. Why would someone you never spoke to regularly place so much faith in you?"

Naruto put his cup down in front of him, his thumb running along the side of the cup in contemplation. "I went home." Naruto answered quietly. There was a quiet moment as Naruto thought out the next few words before continuing to speak. "After leaving the island, I went someplace where I couldn't be found by MBI, but in doing so, I lost contact with the outside world."

He smiled weakly at Miya before adding, "If I had known that he was that bad off, I would have come back sooner."

Miya peered into her tea, debating the merits of asking her next question, one that had plagued her since its disappearance.

"Back on the island, and for a while afterwards, there was an echo in my mind of another person on the edges of awareness." Musubi focused in on the conversation as Miya began to describe someone who had been Winged. "I had a weak sensation of Takehito, but there was someone in the background that muted that all the time until recently. Do you know why that was?"

Naruto pushed his tea away and shifted where he sat. He looked at his hands, wondering if he should tell her, before deciding that a bit of information would be better for her peace of mind.

"It's the reason Takehito was ill." Miya looked confused at him, so he explained quickly. "Takehito didn't have what was necessary to Wing you, Miya. You know this from the island." Miya shivered at the memory, the pain still there from their first kiss. "He needed something that would bridge the gap to allow the Winging to occur naturally. He took a sample of my blood and tested it, found some things in it that he thought would help."

Miya nodded her head, guessing what had happened afterwards. "Did you know?"

Naruto nodded his head. "After you asked me to leave the last time I was here, I took steps to remove my presence from you. It took a couple of months to figure out how to do that."

"Naruto-sama?" Musubi asked in confusion, not following.

Naruto reached over and took Musubi's hand in his. He squeezed it gently as he explained. "Miya's husband found a way to Wing a Sekirei without being a true Ashikabi with my blood, but it caused me to be linked in with them. I learned how to block the link years later."

Musubi looked like she understood, but became more depressed. "Does it prevent you from Winging other Sekirei?"

Naruto smiled weakly to Musubi, stroking her hand with his thumb. He turned back to Miya, looking the woman in the eye. "Your bond was something special. It would have been wrong of me to not block it." Naruto picked his cup up and muttered into it, "I'm not a Peeper."

The sounds of feet coming down the steps brought their attention to the hallway and a scantily clad brunette woman with a side ponytail in her hair. She stood in the doorway for a moment, confused to see new people sitting at the table before shrugging and walking in, taking a seat at the table herself.

"Uzume, I thought I asked you not to come to the table under dressed." Miya asked, her aura of terror being directed at the young woman.

"Ah… hahahaha… I… um… forgot?" The girl responded, smiling weakly as she nervously sweated under Miya's pressure.

Miya sighed at Uzume, the pressure disappearing. Some days, it was just not worth trying with her.

"So, who are your guests?" Uzume pointed over at Naruto and Musubi.

"They are… acquaintances of my husband and I." Miya smiled mysteriously. She gestured to the two of them. "This is Naruto Namikaze, and his friend, Musubi."

"It's Uzumaki now, Miya." Naruto corrected her. "I'm using my mother's family name for the time being."

Uzume snickered behind a hand she had used to yawn into. "Fishcake? Your name is Fishcake?"

Naruto winced before weakly smiling to her. "I was told my Mother wasn't too keen on the name, either."

Uzume took a cracker in her mouth and nibbled, propping her head up with one arm as she observed the two. "Weird tattoo's… Make you look like some sort of animal…"

Naruto smiled weakly as Musubi stared from Naruto's cheeks to the brunette in her under clothes, a bit confused why the girl was looking at them. She would have asked her question had another tenant not come through the door, and watched as Naruto sat up rigidly.

"Good morning, Miya-san." The boy said as he walked into the room, the black slacks and white shirt looking as if he had slept in them as he ran a hand through his ash colored hair. He took a seat next to Uzume before looking to the guests, noticing how Naruto was staring at him in shock while Musubi was looking at Naruto worriedly. "People you know, Miya-san?"

Miya glanced between Naruto and Homura, the older male still staring blankly at the ash haired boy while the boy in question was getting slightly creeped out by the staring. "You probably look familiar to him is all. This is Naruto Uzumaki and his friend Musubi. Naruto, this is my other tenant, Kagari…"

Naruto swallowed as he unclenched, his eyes narrowing as they took the profile of the boy in. "Kagari-san, you said?"

Kagari was definitely getting the impression that this man knew his secret, even though he couldn't recognize him. The blonde hair did tickle an old memory in his head, but he had to put it aside for the here and now.

"I may be heading out early today, Miya-san." He explained to the household lady as he snagged his own cracker and nibbled on it. "Work is starting to pick up and I may not be back home tonight, so don't worry about cooking anything for me."

"You have it so hard, Kagari-san." Uzume murmured around her cracked before chewing and swallowing. "What with all those women clamoring for your attention, it's a wonder how you escape from their clutches every night…"

Kagari weakly smiled as he shrugged. "The life of an entertainer is a hard one, but sometimes we're asked to do things we never would have expected to do."

"Asama-san." Naruto spoke, the first time in awhile as he stared at Kagari. "What happened to Akitsu?"

Both Uzume and Kagari hitched in their seats, trying to play off the awareness that this person knew a very famous Sekirei by name. Turning to look at him, all eyes focused on the blonde in forms of suspicion and curiosity.

Miya thought about it quietly for a few moments. Akitsu had become less and less emotional after Naruto had left the island, there was very little that Miya could do right up until the day they had left the island, her and Takehito. She had heard from Matsu and Uzume that Akitsu had broke out at the same time that Matsu had been sprung from the MBI building, but as to her current whereabouts…

"She's somewhere out in the streets, I imagine." The room grew cold suddenly as Naruto's eyes narrowed once again. "There was an incident at MBI, you probably heard about it, when there was an accident that caused an explosion at their corporate offices."

Naruto made an assumption and jumped to the conclusion Miya was hinting at. "A Sekirei broke free from Minaka's building and you think it was Akitsu."

"She was seen walking off into the park nearby the MBI building from what I had heard." Naruto was up and moving for the door, Musubi close behind him as Miya finished speaking.

"Naruto-sama, wait for Musubi!" The young fighter called after him as Naruto practically jogged to the front door and slid his shoes on. "Musubi will come with you!"

"I need you to stay close to me, Musubi." Naruto grunted as he reached down and pulled the back part of the heel out from under his foot and tied his shoes on. "If I tell you to run, I want you to come back here immediately and don't stop for anything."

"But Musubi can fight!" Musubi complained as she slid her shoes on.

Naruto opened the door, but stopped and fixed Musubi with a hard stare. "Being beaten is the last thing you should be concerned about. Being Winged forcibly should be your top worry." He waited until Musubi stared him in the face before he continued. "If she is out here, she could already have been picked up by someone, an Ashikabi who would use her whether she was Winged or not. If you can't accept that, you should stay here."

"Uzumaki-san." Miya called to them as she walked into the foyer. "You won't be able to find her."

"Doesn't mean I can't try to find her." Naruto growled as he spoke, his eyes flickering briefly as they challenged Miya. "Why haven't they fixed what they did to her? Minaka should have been able to help her by now…"

"Because it's more amusing to have a Wild Card in his game than to help anyone." Miya answered him, anger starting to radiate from Naruto. "What will you do when you find her?"

Naruto took a card out of his pocket and placed it by the shoe rack on a small end table with a phone. "Call this if you hear anything about her." Naruto was out the door without looking back, the brown-haired fighter girl following shortly behind him as she called after him.

Miya walked up to the door and watched them run down the street before reaching over and fingering the card with only a simple phone number on it. She made to tear it in half before considering it once more and placed it behind her obi. Closing the door, she headed back inside and to the life that for a moment had brought a bit of nostalgia to it.

* * *

Dawn was rising, the second day with Musubi was beginning, and his agitation knew no limits.

Having come back to the apartment he was using, he had sent Musubi to the shower while he had sent out a massive amount of clones into the city. Even with the ungodly numbers he could send out, there was only so much information his head could take at any given time, unless he was asleep and his unconscious mind sorted through them for him.

It came out in dreams, making him have one of the weirdest nightmares he'd had in awhile, but it worked out in the end.

Yet, even with all the physical bodies out there, Shinto Teito was too large, and he did not have an advantage in knowing the city as he would have hoped for. There was simply too much ground to cover, too large a populous, and too much time between her escape and her disappearance. Minaka would know, but more than likely, Minaka was also looking for him as well. Takehito's death would have been in an autopsy report, and Minaka would have had his hands all over it 5 seconds after it had been posted.

No, he couldn't go to MBI and get the information. Despite being as old as he was, his skills when it came to computers amounted to henpecked keys and triple checking his spelling. It was a sore spot with him in a long list of things that had never stopped him before from learning.

Drinking his tea as he brooded, he watched the sky change from its dark purple colors to dark blues and over to light blues as the sun rose to greet them. He could make phone calls to a few clients he had in his phone, associates and people who owed him favors. In a couple of hours, He could have not only where she was and who her Ashikabi was, but he could have what she was wearing, the shampoo she had used today, and if she had been treated well.

The problem he was having was did he have the right.

He had been out of her life for almost ten years, and in all that time, he hadn't been there for her. He hadn't contacted Takami to ask how she was doing, she had not even been on his mind since leaving Kamikura island. Did she remember him? Was her Ashikabi a good one and had she been Winged before being broken? Why was she even Broken to begin with?

His stomach turned as he wondered if she had been affected by Kurama's chakra more than anticipated.

"Naruto-sama?" Musubi murmured as she sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from one of her eyes as she looked around for him.

Stepping back into the apartment from the balcony and headed for the kitchen, where a clone was just finishing up breakfast for them. Nodding to the clone, the clone nodded back before dissipating into Bunshin smoke that was sucked into the vent over the stove. As he stepped into the dispersed clone's place, Musubi arrived from the bedroom. She wore the upper part of the pajama's from yesterday, but had foregone the pants, saying that they bound her legs while sleeping, and made it hard to sleep.

"Ohaiyo, Musubi-chan." Naruto smiled to the sleepy woman, as the brunette turned a sleepy smile to him.

"Ohaiyo, Naruto-sama." Musubi smiled at him, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Go wash your face and hands, clean your teeth, I'll have breakfast made for you by the time you get back." Musubi mumbled in a happy/sleepy daze as she wandered off to the bathroom, Naruto shaking his head as she closed the door behind her and freshened herself up.

He had to admit that the girl brought something like nostalgia to him as he interacted with her more and more. The innocence in the way she spoke and interacted, her enthusiasm to do everything she did with 110%, even her moments of confusion reminded him of days when Konoha still existed and of a young blonde who had run its streets before becoming a ninja.

He was in the middle of laying the plates and food out on the table when a feeling started to form in the back of his head. A feeling he hadn't been expecting to feel coming from his bathroom. Stepping down the hall, he could already see the dull shine of a light brighter than his bathroom lights shining out from underneath the door frame. Opening the door quickly, he shocked the still slightly asleep girl, toothbrush held in her hand as she put her fists before her in defense.

"Naruto-sama?" Musubi asked tentatively as the adrenaline rushing through her veins before she sighed, putting her hand against her chest. "You scared me, Naruto-sama. Musubi thought that there was someone attacking."

"Musubi." Naruto called her name, drawing her attention to his serious face. He pointed at her other hand, holding the toothbrush. "Whose toothbrush is that?"

Blinking in confusion, Musubi looked down at the toothbrush in her hand in confusion before she stuck her tongue out, bopping herself on the side of her head. "Musubi got Naruto-sama's toothbrush by accident. Gomen...eh?" Tilting her head to the side, Musubi's eyes looked up as her head tilted to one side before Musubi looked perplexed. "Musubi's head feels funny..."

Naruto stared from Musubi's face to the faint outline of wings fading away on her back before palming his face in his hand. "Note to self... seal toothbrush..."

* * *

Miya's life had gone as planned for several years since she had last seen Naruto, having threatened him bodily harm and physically tossed him from the premise into her back yard. Sitting and watching breakfast being consumed by Uzume, Matsu, and Homura, she wondered if Takehito would approve of this quiet life, knowing what they knew and what was about to happen in the city.

"Miya, I tried doing what you asked of me." Matsu stated as she took her glasses off and placed them beside her chopsticks, focusing her gaze on her former leader turned landlady. "It's not much, but MBI got a notice today that Naruto winged #88 Musubi at roughly 6 this morning, after which all resources were placed into search mode to find him. The file was instantly tagged as Classified, I lost access to it 5 minutes later when they physically removed it from the server."

Miya frowned at the info that he had winged Musubi after already stating that he couldn't, or in his case, wouldn't wing the girl. "Was there an indication on how she was winged?" Miya asked, taking note that Homura had stopped eating for the time being while Uzume looked on in confusion.

"From the first contact numbers, it was more than likely an accident." Matsu noted as she stared across the table to Miya. "It was a lot like what happened with Karasuba when they overrode Naruto's bond to her with Matsuo's."

Miya nodded her head, thanking Matsu before debating on her next steps.

"Miya," Uzume asked, curious yet scared she was going to draw out Miya's hannya, "Did you know that man?"

Miya nodded before taking a sip of her tea. Placing it back before her, she answered in more detail. "Naruto Uzumaki was one of the people who taught the First Disciplinary Squad how to fight and use their Sekirei powers. He disappeared soon after the Red Beast incident when the attack came." She watched the looks of awe and fear pass over Kagari and Uzume's faces. Matsu was typing away on a small laptop, already having heard about this information before. "He was the first Ashikabi, having winged Karasuba during a test to unlock the full potential of a Sekirei."

Uzume fidgeted in place. "It's just that... the doctors at the hospital can't seem to help Chiyo... her sickness is something they've never seen... Maybe if someone from Kamikura looked at her?"

Miya stared at Uzume in contemplation. One the one hand, Naruto wasn't a doctor and could make things worse with the girl, endangering Uzume's life in the process. However, there had been times where Naruto had been asked to attend special testing with Takehito that he claimed had left him more confused than anything.

"If you wish to reach out to Naruto, I won't stop you." Matsu looked up at Miya before looking back at her laptop. "Just don't get your hopes up."

Matsu perked up from her seat. "Does this mean Matsu can start looking for Naruto-sama, Miya-san?"

Miya frowned before nodding to the pleated redhead. "Just this once, I'll allow it. Use the phone number he provided us to track him. He will most likely allow one contact before disposing of it before providing us with another number."

Matsu was on her feet and nearly vibrating in place as her glasses fogged over. "Hu hu hu hu, Naruto-sama, Matsu has been given permission to find you. You won't be able to escape these eyes of mine..." Her hands were making creepy squeezing motions in the air in front of her, giving her a lecherous vibe. "Don't worry, Uzume-tan, Matsu will find her man!"

All three of them sweatdropped at the statement.

* * *

Naruto had narrowed down the last known site of Akitsu to an Arboretum some blocks from MBI's main building. His investigation had come to a halt at that point as memory of Akitsu had been replaced by something even more fascinating than a partially clad woman in blood stains and panties.

Before him, the Arboretum that should have been there looked more like the Forest of Death from his home village. Trees towered as tall as skyscrapers, fingers of wood and leaf reaching for the sky being guarded by MBI military security forces at all entrances. That MBI was involved would have made Naruto leery about investigating, but he had honestly run out of options from here as reports of the girl's appearance had pointed him in his direction, and no one in the immediately area remembered seeing her walk away.

Either she was in the immediate area, or all trace of her had been lost at the sudden appearance of these woods in this urban jungle.

Approaching on foot was out of the question, he didn't want MBI to know that he was still around. Avoiding everything that had camera access with Henge had been one thing. Falsifying his name became loads harder when the city itself was being bought out by MBI and the staff and security of the island wanted to know everyone by face recognition and name. It wouldn't have been too hard to change his name via hacking, but he knew for sure that the attempt to alter or add false information would be picked up by people who were raised in a generation of technology.

His answer would and will always stay as 'Punch it til it stops'.


End file.
